LATIN AMERICA:
‘Christians Should Take
Poverty and Justice
Seriously’
Interview with Leonardo
Boff

SAN SALVADOR (IPS) -
Brazilian theologian
Leonardo Boff arrived in
El Salvador on Easter
Sunday, the eve of the
28th anniversary of the
assassination of
Monsignor Oscar Romero
by a sniper on Mar. 24,
1980, while he was
celebrating mass.

Boff participated in
events held to
commemorate the murder
of Romero, known to
Roman Catholics in El
Salvador as "the voice
of the voiceless."

A former Franciscan
priest born in 1938,
Boff said his visit to
San Salvador was "a debt
I owed to Monsignor
Romero," who was
archbishop of this
diocese.

"Oscar Romero died
because of his love for
the poor. He initiated a
kind of martyrdom for
the sake of justice,
arising from a deeply
committed faith.
Basically, he imitated
the deeds of Christ," he
said.

The U.N.-sponsored Truth
Commission concluded in
1993 that the late Major
Roberto d’Aubuisson, the
founder of the rightwing
Nationalist Republican
Alliance (ARENA),
ordered Romero’s
killing. ARENA has
governed El Salvador
since 1989.

The Vatican has
initiated a process of
beatification for the
late Salvadoran
archbishop.

In 2000, the
Inter-American
Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR) blamed
the Salvadoran state for
violating Romero’s right
to life and failing to
investigate his murder.

Last October, the
government rejected
responsibility for the
crime, and refused to
follow the IACHR’s
recommendations.

One of the founders of
Liberation Theology and
the author of 60 books,
Boff’s views, summed up
in "Church: Charisma and
Power - Liberation
Theology and the
Institutional Church"
(1985), were frowned on
by the Vatican, which
exercised disciplinary
measures against him in
the 1980s and 1990s.

Joseph Ratzinger, who
was then head of the
Vatican’s Sacred
Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith,
and is now Pope Benedict
XVI, imposed several of
these sanctions on him,
including periods of
enforced silence, during
which he could not
celebrate mass or speak
publicly about doctrinal
questions.

Boff finally left the
Franciscan order in 1992
and devoted himself to
teaching and writing.

In his view, Romero has
become "an icon, not
only for the Church, but
for another kind of
humanism that seeks
dialogue, sides with the
most vulnerable, and
involves salvaging the
dignity of human beings
and demanding changes to
guarantee that dignity."
"That was seen as
subversive, and
therefore he was
sacrificed," Boff said.

He spoke to IPS
correspondent Raúl
Gutiérrez in San
Salvador about human
rights and religious
affairs in Latin
America.

IPS: What do you think
is the main obstacle to
clearing up the
assassination of
Monsignor Romero?

LEONARDO BOFF: Society
has to cleanse its
memory. That’s the only
way that justice can be
done. Human relations
cannot be based on lies
and impunity.

It is essential for
society itself to demand
that the perpetrators be
identified and that the
law be enforced. Unless
that happens, there will
always be an open wound,
and people will continue
to demand that the spilt
blood be atoned for.

IPS: Those in power say
that this would reopen
the wounds of the past.

LB: That’s a profoundly
selfish view, because
those who died continue
to belong to humankind.
Human history is made up
of the dead, their
dignity and their
actions.

The memory of the
victims must be
preserved, because
without it, society
loses the human beings
who have gone before.
The dead have another
kind of life and
presence. They are on
the other side of life.

IPS: Monsignor Romero
was a bishop who was
appreciated and loved
all over the world. In
several European
cathedrals, statues have
been erected in his
memory. Why is it that
here, in El Salvador,
those guilty of his
murder cannot be brought
to justice?

LB: Oscar Romero is a
unique martyr. He died
for justice and for his
love of the poor. He is
a kind of saint that is
uncommon in the history
of the Church. He
initiated a kind of
martyrdom for the sake
of justice, arising from
a deeply committed
faith. Basically, he
imitated the deeds of
Christ. That is why I
understand that the
religious powers-that-be
have difficulty reading
this new sign; they
don’t know how to
interpret it.

IPS: In decades past,
the ties between the
Catholic Church and the
people of Latin American
were considered to be
intense, close and
strong. How do you view
them now?

LB: Almost half of the
world’s Catholics live
in Latin America. That,
in itself, is a
strength. But the Latin
American Church’s
capacity for recreating
a new liturgical face,
better adapted to
people’s cultures, is
also the Catholic
Church: a Church that
cherishes the memory of
the wisdom of indigenous
and Afro-descendant
cultures. This Church is
still in the process of
being born.

So far it has been an
appendage, a reflection
of the European Church.
Now it is increasingly a
strong Church that is
consolidating its own
identity.

IPS: Protestant churches
have been gaining ground
in Latin America, and
the Catholic Church has
lost members. What do
you think is the reason?

LB: It’s the Church’s
own fault that it’s
losing members, through
being too authoritarian
and centralised. It
hasn’t got enough
priests because they are
not allowed to marry,
and this is a growing
cause of permanent
internal crisis.

This Church is not open
to change, as others
are. Even Judaism has
opened its doors to
women’s ministry. If the
Catholic Church does not
open itself up, its
flock will continue to
shrink.

In spite of that, the
Catholic Church is
illuminated from its
base, from Bible study
groups, social
pastorates for land, and
Afro-descendants’ and
indigenous people’s
organisations, which is
where its vitality lies.

IPS: Is there any
connection between the
loss of members and the
Catholic liberation
theology movement, which
was very strong three
decades ago, but lost
momentum and saw its
leaders removed?

LB: Studies show that
the Church is growing
where liberation
theology is alive. Where
it is absent,
charismatic churches and
sects gain ground. This
has been statistically
demonstrated.

Nor is it true that
liberation theology has
driven people out of the
Catholic Church. I think
there have been attempts
to demoralise adherents
of liberation theology
and to deny the movement
legitimacy, and
therefore many
Christians who do not
understand how the pope
and the bishops can be
on the side of the
oppressors and the rich,
and not on the side of
the poor, have become
discouraged.

IPS: What are the
challenges that
liberation theology
faces in order to
reawaken its dampened
spirit?

LB: At the recent World
Forum on Theology and
Liberation in Nairobi,
which attracted
representatives from
Asia, Africa, Latin
America, Europe and the
United States, we saw
its immense vitality and
growth. But it is not as
visible, nor as
controversial, as it
used to be. Liberation
theology is present
wherever the churches
take poverty and justice
seriously.

The movement began with
the experience of
listening to
marginalised people: the
poor, indigenous people,
Afro-descendants and
women, and it is still
as relevant as it was
decades ago, because the
poor are still crying
out to God to hear them.
A gospel that does not
lead to liberation is no
gospel at all.

I don’t care about
criticism from the
powerful of the world
and from the Church.
What I care about is
that there are
Christians who take the
issue of justice
seriously.

Liberation theology has
not made poor people an
object of reflection. It
has walked with them,
and shared the same
persecutions, slanders,
tortures and murders
that they suffer. A
theologian has one foot
in extreme poverty and
the other foot in
reflection, and by
walking on both, arrives
at liberation.

And now we must pay
attention to the cry of
the gang members and
young people who have no
place in society, the
unwanted ones, who are
neglected by public
policies: drug addicts,
those caught up in
violence, the wretched
of the earth.

But we must also heed
the cry of the earth,
the water, the forests
and the animals,
threatened by an
insensitive and
merciless culture, which
may bring about a crisis
in the web of life and
cause hundreds of
species to disappear.